


The Prince and the Frog

by nychus



Series: IgNoct Week 2019 [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ignoct Week, Ignoct Week 2019, M/M, Situational Prompt, Status Effects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 02:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20036446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nychus/pseuds/nychus
Summary: Ignis inflects himself with toad to save the others, much to the annoyance of Noctis.IgNoct Week 2019 - Day 2:Situational Prompt - Someone gets turned into an animal—chaos ensues





	The Prince and the Frog

The sabertusks swarmed them. There were just too many for them to fight and Ignis was quick to recognize it.

“RUN!” he yelled, half expecting the others to refuse. Fortunately, they too saw the danger they were in and were quick to turn heel and run towards the safety of the road and Regalia.

The pack was quick, though, and Ignis realized they had targeted Noctis, who was the last one in their line. If even one of the animals got a swipe in, Noctis would be downed and immediately pounced upon by the entire pack.

Thinking fast, Ignis slowed just enough to push Noctis forward, yelling for Gladio to catch him. There was a yelp from Noctis as Ignis pushed him and he stumbled. Gladio was there to keep him on his feet and they kept running.

~*~*~*~*~

The Regalia was a welcome sight and Noctis collapsed against it. “Thank the Astrals.”

“Yeah,” Prompto agreed, catching his breath while Gladio stood next to him doing the same. “I wonder why they were so intent on us.”

“And why they stopped chasing us,” Noctis said, turning around to look down the hill they had just climbed. No sabertusks in sight. The others didn’t have any answers. Ready to put this adventure behind them, Noctis turned to Ignis.

Only, Ignis wasn’t there. Every direction he looked lacked his oldest friend.

Prompto and Gladio noticed his absence too and Gladio was first to jump the guardrail and start back down the hill.

“You two stay there, I’ll find him.”

Lovely instruction, but not one the other two were willing to follow. They too had hopped the guardrail and were racing down the hill. They had to find Ignis. He could be hurt or…

_No, don’t think about it_, Noctis told himself. Ignis was fine. Had to be. He’s up a tree or something and the sabertusks got bored and left.

When they reached the spot they had last seen Ignis, it was quiet. No predator and no prey. Noctis’s heart sank. More so when Gladio stopped and stared at the ground with a frown.

“Blood,” Gladio said grimly. “But it’s not a lot.”

“IGNIS!” Noctis yelled. He needed to see him. Needed to know he was okay. “IGNIS!”

Gladio looked like he wanted to quiet him, but Prompto joined in the shouts. Instead of adding to the din, Gladio was staring around the area, trying to figure out where Ignis might have gone.

In a quiet moment between shouts, the sound of a frog croaking was heard. Noctis didn’t think anything of it, continuing his shouting. Gladio, however, shushed them.

“But…” Noctis started.

“Quiet!” Gladio hissed. They stood still until there was another croak. Gladio turned his head a few times, listening for the frog and trying to pin down where it was. Noctis was about to start shouting again when Gladio moved towards a bush at the same time a haggard looking frog came out from underneath it.

The frog was deep purple in color and had bright green eyes. It had a cut across it’s back and a nasty gash on its back leg. Gladio bent down and held his hands flat so the animal could gingerly hop on, uttering a croak of thanks.

“Since when did sabertusks learn toad?” Prompto asked quietly, staring in disbelief at Ignis.

“They didn’t,” Noctis answered, just as quietly. He thought back to when they fled. Ignis had pushed him towards Gladio and he now remembered feeling the slight tug of someone using the armiger. “Ignis put toad on himself. I felt him pull it from the armiger, I just didn’t realize it until now.”

“Why?”

“Pretty smart way to slip away from those beasts,” Gladio said. “Become small and slip out before they realize what happened. Do we have any Maiden’s Kiss?”

Noctis shook his head. Toad wasn’t something they ran across often and thus tended to forget to stock up on kisses. He did think to pull out a potion to break it over Ignis, hoping that his wounds would heal. Fortunately, they did, and Ignis gave another croak of thanks.

“Fine, we’ll just drive up to Meldacio and get some.”

It seemed like a fine idea. Everyone agreed and they started back to the Regalia. They’d have Ignis back to his human self in no time. Only…

“Ignis has the keys,” Noctis remembered when they had reached the Regalia. The others looked at him. “He has the keys, which means they are wherever clothes go when one gets turned into a toad.”

The three humans looked at Ignis, who looked ashamed of himself.

“Okay, new plan…” Gladio said, although he seemed to be at a loss as to what this new plan was going to be.

“Chocobos?” Prompto asked. “Ride them to Meldacio?”

It was as good a plan as any. Noctis whistled for the birds and they waited. Gladio had put Ignis on top of the trunk of the Regalia and Noctis found he couldn’t stop staring at him. Ignis who had willingly sacrificed himself to keep Noctis alive. Of course he would. That’s what Ignis does. It all made sense now that he had time to reflect on everything, but at the time, he had no idea what was going on in Ignis’s mind. He thought Ignis was just pushing him forward to keep him out of the jaws of the sabertusks.

Ignis, at least, only looked mildly perturbed at being a frog. Maybe because he had brought it on himself.

When the birds finally arrived, Ignis’s chocobo was confused as to why her rider wasn’t around. She kept looking this way and that while making clicking noises.

“He’s okay,” Prompto promised her. “We just got to get him back to normal.”

They saddled up and Noctis insisted that Ignis ride with him. He felt it was his fault that Ignis was in this predicament, even if he couldn’t explain why. He wanted to be the one to protect the frog.

Starting out at a quick gallop, they boys wanted to get to Meldacio as quick as possible. That pace didn’t last, however, as Noctis saw that the movement was making Ignis ill. They slowed considerably. If they would have been able to keep the gallop pace, they could have easily made it to Meldacio before nightfall. As it was, they were going to have to find a haven for the evening. As they rode, everyone kept an eye out for the glow of the runes or the welcoming sign of rising smoke. They would stop at the first one they saw so that they didn’t have to worry with daemons.

The longer they rode, the more worried they got about finding a haven.

Night was nearly upon them when Prompto spotted a haven some distance away from the road. They turned towards it and heard the all-too familiar sound of daemons coming to life in the darkened world. It would be a race to safety.

“Hold on,” Noctis said, clutching Ignis to his chest with one hand and urging his chocobo onward. Fortunately, the birds were nimble and could easily side-step the daemons, but as luck would have it, Noctis’s chocobo managed to catch its foot on a root, sending the three of them flying.

Noctis lost his grip on Ignis as he rolled and had no idea what happened to him by the time he stopped.

“IGNIS!” he yelled, calling his blade and preparing to take down every daemon in his path. Gladio and Prompto were soon by his side and they dispatched the beings easily. Now they needed to find Ignis. Ignis who wasn’t answering their yells; not a single croak.

Noctis was ready to search all night, but Gladio stopped him. “We have to go! Every daemon in the area will start swarming us if we don’t get to the haven.”

“But Ignis!”

“I don’t like it either,” Gladio shouted back. “But my job is to protect you! Ignis is resourceful, he’ll be fine. Now, let’s go!”

With continuing protests, Noctis was pulled away and taken to the haven.

No one slept that night. Everyone was worried about Ignis and stared out into wilds hoping he would magically show up alive and human.

He never did.

As the early morning light started breaking over the horizon, Gladio, Prompto, and Noctis were exhausted but ready to jump down and start looking for their friend as soon as it was deemed safe.

It wasn’t hard for Gladio to find where the chocobo had tripped, easily retracing their steps to the disturbed grass and broken shrubbery. They didn’t even have a chance to get half of Ignis’s name called when a miserable sounding croak could be heard coming from under a tightly wound group of shrubs and roots.

“Thank the Astrals,” Noctis sighed, dropping to his knees and scooping up the once again haggard looking Ignis.

Ignis looked horrible. Tired, probably hungry, definitely cold. He definitely leaned into Noctis’s body once the prince held him.

“We need to get to Meldacio, quickly,” Noctis said, hauling himself up on his chocobo. There was no argument from the others. Noctis held Ignis tight as he gave a snap of the reins and asked the chocobo to take off.

They were making good time when there was a sizzle of magic in the air and the frog that Noctis was holding so closely to his chest suddenly became a full-grown man. The sudden change in mass on the chocobo threw it completely off balance, toppling it and the two on it’s back. Fortunately, they fell into the grass on the side of the road. Unfortunately, the grass was on an incline. Noctis and Ignis tumbled over each other as they rolled down hill, eventually coming to a stop in some bushes on the edge of a copse.

Ignis landed on his back with Noctis not quite fully on top of him. They looked at each other for a second before Noctis hit him hard in the upper arm and yelled “Don’t ever do that again!”

“I only did what I thought necessary,” Ignis said. “It is my duty to keep you alive.”

“NO!” Noctis yelled. “It is your duty to stay alive with me! I thought I lost you, you idiot. TWICE! I thought I lost you twice! Never, ever do that again!”

Ignis looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t have the energy. In Noctis’s frustration and utter happiness of having Ignis back, he leaned down and kissed him before he could think too much about it. It took Ignis by surprise, but to Noctis’s joy, his adviser didn’t try to push him away. In fact, a hand reached around the back of his head and fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer as their kisses became more heated.

They only stopped when an amused cough sounded to their right and then large beak pushed its way into Ignis’s face, nipping lightly at him in greeting. Embarrassed, they stood, Ignis a little weak from his time as a frog. He allowed Noctis to help him up on his chocobo before they followed the other two (who were chuckling) back towards the road.

“Let’s continue to Meldacio, I think Ignis could probably use some medical care,” Gladio said. The others didn’t argue.

As they rode, Noctis stayed next to Ignis.

“Last night, all I could think about was how much you meant to me. How much I lov….how important to me you were. How I hate this dance around each other we’ve done for so long. I thought, I just…if we found you and got you back to being human, I was going to just go for it. Not regret it and hope you didn’t regret it either.”

A hand grabbed his and Noctis followed the movement as Ignis brought his hand to his lips. “I love you too, Noct.”

A smile in that quiet moment, made only for the two of them.

“I wish I could say I was having similar thoughts.”

“But?”

“But a frog’s mind is a simple thing and I was mostly just thinking in croaks.”

Noctis’s laughter echoed off the cliff walls on their left as they neared the outpost. They knew that this would be an interesting, and perhaps even scary, adventure. They also knew that it couldn’t be any worse than what they had just gone through and were excited to give it a try.


End file.
